Gabbard is not of Indian descent but comes from a Hindu family in Hawaii and took her oath office on the Bhagavad Gita when she was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2011 and after her three re-elections.

The 37-year-old Iraq War veteran is the first Hindu elected to Congress and the first member born in the USA territory of American Samoa.

She drew controversy when she met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2017 amidst the brutal civil war there. Before challenging President Donald Trump in the November 2020 elections, Gabbard has to fight against her own Democratic party colleagues during the primary elections beginning early that year.

"There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision", Gabbard told the broadcaster.

Gabbard served in a field medical unit of the Hawaii Army National Guard in a combat zone in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and was later deployed to Kuwait. Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris, who aggressively questioned the nominee, Brian Buescher, about his religious beliefs.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of MA on December 31 announced she had formed an exploratory committee for a presidential run in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field before the November 2020 presidential election. After coming back home, she worked as a legislative aide to Sen. Gabbard remains popular with some liberals but will have serious competition with other candidates on the left flank of the party.

Gabbard certainly poses a thorny problem for the neocon-neoliberal axis, as she checks all the identity politics boxes - the first Hindu member of Congress, a woman, a veteran - and she has undeniable populist appeal, given her anti-establishment record. She also met with refugees and Syrian opposition leaders.

Gabbard, 37, is widely known for her unorthodox positions within the Democratic caucus. She is said to have supported in 2014 a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage nationwide, but later reversed her opinion and applauded a Supreme Court decision to legalise gay marriage across the US.

Gabbard's aide Rania Batrice will manage her presidential campaign.

Asked a year ago whether she would still consider running if Senator Sanders ran, Ms Gabbard said Senator Sanders is a friend and she did not know what his plans were.

In 2015, Gabbard, then a vice-chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, was sharply critical of its then-chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for scheduling just six presidential debates during the 2016 primary election cycle.

Chelsea make a move for Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain
Higuain had his most successful season under Sarri, breaking the Serie A goalscoring record with 36 goals in the 2015/16 campaign. Chelsea , for their part, are in need of a striker after deploying Eden Hazard as a false nine for a large chunk of the season.

R.Kelly spotted at South Side club amid new allegations
Two years later, someone mailed a copy of the now-infamous sex tape to former Sun-Times reporter and music critic Jim DeRogatis. The case was referred to a local prosecutor, and a judge issued a warrant for Mason's arrest in July previous year .

Apple Might Debut 3 New iPhones in 2019
Will the new iPhones be a worthwhile upgrade? The report is light on other features of the 2019 iPhones. Some retailers are discounting up to $118 (Rs 8,200 approximately) for the 64GB variant of iPhone XR.

Kliff Kingsbury to be Cardinals coach, report says
I do know for sure that this will continue to be one of the biggest storylines in the sport until we get some kind of resolution. But he has battled injuries, including a hamstring issue that kept him sidelined for the regular-season finale against the Jets .

Clemson Rolls Tide To Win Natl Title
Clemson returns quarterback Trevor Lawrence, running back Travis Ettiene and receivesr Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins among others. Their most recent meeting came in last year's playoff semi-final, which was a one-sided 24-6 victory for the Crimson Tide.

Nvidia announces GeForce RTX 2060
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced that the company's new RTX chips will be in over 40 laptops with 17 rocking Max-Q cards. Better yet, the new RTX 2060 will support both ray tracing and deep learning super sampling (DLSS).

US driver in 'Bird Box blindfold' crashes in Utah
Travis Lyman told CBS News that a 17-year-old girl was driving with a 16-year-old passenger at the time of the crash. When the movie first came out, Netflix gave a clear warning to viewers to not try the risky challenge .